The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2012: I'll admit that when I first read the title of Jan-Philipp Sendker's novel, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, I winced (just a little). Something about it gave off a whiff of well-aged Stilton, but this love story is no stinky cheese. In it, a respected New York City attorney vanishes, supposedly en route to a business trip, leaving an embittered wife and dumbfounded daughter behind. No, I'm not getting my genres mixed-up. While there's a mystery--one the daughter, Julia, travels to Burma to unravel--what she uncovers there is anything but sinister. Julia is a cynical sleuth, and your suspension of disbelief will be tested, too, but as this sweeping romance unfolds, you'll gladly fall for it. --Erin Kodicek

• A Well-Tempered Heart (Art of Hearing Heartbeats)
• Modern Girls
• Where the Crawdads Sing
• The Long Path to Wisdom: Tales from Burma
• Testimony: A Novel
• Whispering Shadows: A Novel (The Rising Dragon Series)
• The Lords of Discipline: A Novel
• Maine (Vintage Contemporaries)
• The Alice Network: A Novel
• The Storyteller's Secret: A Novel